Mkts retreat on weak global cues; Sensex tests 9K

The benchmark indices are witnessing selling pressure following negative global markets. Nortel files Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and US retails sales reported worse than expected, all these news triggered sell-off in the US markets. All sectoral indices are trading in red.

At 9:56 am, the Sensex went down 374 points to 8,995 and the Nifty lost 117 points at 2,718. CNX Midcap 100 tanked 2.8 points at 3,428.

Fitch downgraded Unitech and said doubtful of company's repayment ability to refinance debt obligations. The stock plunged 12.5%

Nortel filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which said operations expected to continue without interruption and has sufficient cash on hand to fund ongoing operations. The company holds 9.5% stake in Sasken Communication, which locked at 20% lower circuit.

Nortel is a client of Wipro and Infosys, which lost 6% and 4%, respectively. Commenting on this development, V Balakrishnan, CFO, Infosys said Nortel contributes 0.5% of revenues. "Outstanding payment from Nortel stood at USD 4 million."

Wipro Tech's annual revenue from Nortel around USD 25 million, reports CNBC-TV18 quoting NW18.

There are reports that Maytas Infra may sell assets to raise funds and is in talks with Nagarjuna Construction and Ramky Infra. Maytas locked at 5% lower circuit.

Asian markets are trading sharply lower post US fall. Hang Seng, Nikkei, Straits Times, Kospi and Taiwan plunged 3.6-6%. Shanghai fell 1.2%.

All commodities dropped on Wednesday, as US retail sales fell for the sixth month to record lows. Euro is trading at 6-week low versus Yen ahead of the ECB meet.

Crude oil fell nearly 1% at $37.3/bbl on big jump in oil inventory; was down 4% during the day. US crude inventories are at 16 month highs and came in 10% above 5-year average. It is currently trading at USD 36.3 a barrel.

Gold declined 1.5% or $12 at $810/ounce and Silver lost 1.9% to $10.475. Copper declined 6% on Comex and was down 3% on LME.

US markets plunged as Nortel filed for bankruptcy and retails sales reported worse than expected. Deutsche Bank reported preliminary Euro 4.8 billion 4Q loss.

The Dow Jones ended down 248 points or 3% at 8,200 and the Nasdaq was down 56.8 points or 3.67% at 1,490. S&P 500 went down 29.2 points or 3.35% at 842.6.

Market cues:

FIIs net sell USD 82.9 million in equity on January 13

MFs net sell Rs 179.3 crore in equity on January 13

NSE F&O Open Int up by Rs 1,946 crore at Rs 47,878 crore

F&O cues:

Futures Open Int up by Rs 1,041 crore, Options Open Int up by Rs 905 crore

Nifty Futures shed 2 lakh shares in total Open Int, Jan Futures at 23 pt discount

Stock Futures add 3 crore shares in Open Int

Nifty Open Int Put-Call ratio at 0.94 versus 0.90

Nifty Puts add 19 lakh, Calls add 8 lakh shares in Open Int

Nifty 2800, 2700 & 2500 Puts add 6 lakh shares each in Open Int

Source: MoneyControl